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Three people including Texas constable killed in mass shooting www.privateofficer.com
College Station TX Aug 14 2012 Three people, including a police officer and the suspected gunman, are dead following a shooting near the Texas A&M campus in College Station on Monday, police and university officials say. Four others, including three police officers and a female civilian, were wounded.
According to the College Station Police Department, the gunman was shot and taken into custody. The gunman later died, a police spokesman told the Dallas Morning News’ crime blog. A male civilian also died in the “gunfight,” police said.
The shooting began when an officer attempted to serve an eviction notice, according to WFAA-TV. That officer, Brian Bachmann, a 41-year-old Brazos County constable, was fatally wounded in the shooting, which occurred shortly after noon about a block away from campus.
“It appears that the shooter [was] shooting from a house with automatic weapons,” KBTX-TV said.
The other wounded officers are being treated for non-life-threatening injuries, the police spokesman said. The female civilian underwent surgery Monday; her condition was not released.
Texas A&M issued an alert on its website just before 12:30 p.m. local time on Monday warning of an active shooter near Kyle Field, the campus football stadium.
The shooting occurred near Highlands and Fidelity Streets in College Station, just south of George Bush Drive and east of the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum.
Monday’s shooting comes a little more than a week after seven people, including the suspected gunman, were killed in a mass shooting at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wis., and less than a month after a gunman opened fire at Aurora, Colo., movie theater during a midnight screening of “Dark Knight Rises,” killing 12 and wounding 58.
City of Birmingham files lawsuit to stop closing of county hospital www.privateofficer.com
Birmingham AL Aug 14 2012 The city of Birmingham has filed a lawsuit asking a judge to prevent Jefferson County from closing Cooper Green Mercy Hospital, according to court documents.
The suit comes after a Jefferson County Commission committee voted Aug. 7 to end inpatient care at the county’s safety-net hospital in 30 days. The commission is set to discuss the issue at its regular meeting on Tuesday.
Birmingham’s lawsuit claims ending inpatient health care services would irreparably harm indigent citizens of the city and put the county in violation of the Alabama Health Care Responsibility Act.
According to the suit, 60 percent of Cooper Green’s patients are residents of the city of Birmingham.
Jefferson County Commission President David Carrington told the Birmingham News that the case couldn’t proceed in state court because it is subject to the automatic stay provision resulting from the county’s bankruptcy filing.
Jefferson County, which is in the midst of bankruptcy proceedings and also coping with the loss of revenue from its occupational tax, is weighing its options for the indigent care facility.
Commissioners in favor of ending inpatient care have said the 319-bed hospital is a drain on the county’s finances, according to Fox 6. Opponents of the closure say the facility is necessary for the community.
Commissioners George Bowman and Sandra Little Brown opposed ending the services, while Commissioners Carrington, Jimmie Stephens and Joe Knight voted for the closure during the committee meeting earlier this week.
The Birmingham Business Alliance issued a statement on Friday urging the county to define a clear plan for indigent care before voting to end inpatient services at the hospital.
“We believe that a broad community consensus can be developed around a plan that would both improve the quality of indigent health care and lower costs to a level the county can afford, if the right process is employed,” said BBA Chairman John D. Johns, CEO of Protective Life Corp.
Source:Birmingham Business Journal
Tennessee Supreme Court to decide duties of Nashville sheriff www.privateofficer.com
Nashville TN Aug 14 2012 The Tennessee Supreme Court will decide if Davidson County’s sheriff has the power to investigate inmates’ immigration status. But Metro doesn’t want to leave it up to the courts to decide what else he can do.
Metro’s Law Department is proposing an amendment to the Metro Charter that would explicitly spell out the various duties the sheriff began performing after the formation of the charter. The 1963 charter largely stripped the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office of most of its policing power. But a lawsuit challenging Sheriff Daron Hall’s 287(g) immigration program prompted discussion about what exactly the charter allows.
“The idea of this is to really clear up non-287(g) issues going forward,” Hall said Friday. “Let’s make sure going forward there are no questions.”
Hall and Metro Law Director Saul Solomon say the amendment, which will be on the November ballot if the Metro Council approves it, does not expand the sheriff’s powers but merely clarifies them.
The 1963 charter put the sheriff in charge of the jails and largely stripped the position of its policing powers, transferring those to Metro Police. But since then, the sheriff has taken on more duties that aren’t explicitly spelled out in the charter.
“The world has changed since the charter took, obviously,” Solomon said. “Booking, courthouse security, DNA squad, serving protective orders. I don’t think we’ll be looking for anything else. We’re not looking to expand anything that he’s doing currently.”
Metro estimates the county saves $4 million a year by having the sheriff perform those duties, largely because it’s cheaper to employ jail deputies than police officers.
Police Chief Steve Anderson said the amendment also would allow the police and sheriff to swap some duties in the name of cost savings.
“We’ll continue to look for things where we’re either duplicating something or if his people can do things in a more efficient manner,” Anderson said.
Attorney ‘puzzled’
Immigration attorney Elliott Ozment threw the sheriff’s powers into question in a 2011 lawsuit filed to stop Hall’s 287(g) program. Under the program, sheriff’s deputies investigate each inmate booked into Davidson County jails to determine their immigration status.
Ozment brought the suit on behalf of three legal residents who were screened and detained in the program. He argues that the sheriff, under the charter, does not have the legal authority to conduct immigration investigations.
Ozment on Friday said he couldn’t comment until he saw the proposed amendment, but he questioned Metro’s timing.
“I’m puzzled as to why they are doing this now. Why not wait and see what the Supreme Court says in the case that’s now pending before it?” he asked. “The Supreme Court might clarify all the issues everyone is confused about.”
Ozment declined to comment on the ongoing lawsuit against the sheriff. Solomon and Hall said they were confident Metro would prevail in court.
The case was argued before the Tennessee Supreme Court in June, and a decision could come at any time.
Source:tennessean
Jackson apartment security guard charged with murder www.privateofficer.com
JACKSON, MS Aug 14 2012- Distraught family members and neighbors stood in shock as police investigated a homicide at Rebel Woods Apartments on Sunday night.
Hinds County Coroner Sharon Grisham-Stewart identified the victim as Tony Taylor, 26.
Police have charged apartment complex security guard Jose Benavides with murder.
Family members say Taylor got into an argument with a resident and Benavides followed the victim to the scene of the shooting at building H.
“When he (Taylor) walked up to this building, he (Benavides) came up on him and he started telling my cousin don’t come toward me, why you walking up on me? He (Taylor) got his hands in the air the whole time. He saying, I ain’t walking up on you. If you gone shoot me go on and shoot me. What you gone do shoot me? And he (Benavides) shot him. When he (Benavides) shot him, he (Taylor) went stumbling and he (Benavides) told him, what you stumbling for, don’t fall now. And my cousin hit the ground,” recalls Quinnita Sanders.
Another witness has a similar story.
“He (Taylor) wasn’t armed at all. He didn’t even have a shirt on. So you can tell from a distance if he was armed or not,” says Kenneth Thompson.
Police were called to Rebel Woods Apartments about 9:50 P.M.
Family members of the victim and neighbors say they’ve had problems in the past with security at the apartment complex
“This is the same guy he got into it with two weeks ago and pulled a gun on him before,” says Sanders.
Multiple disturbances occurred after the shooting at the apartment complex, despite a heavy police presence on the scene
Source:wlbt.com
Indiana teen commits suicide in police car after arrest www.privateofficer.com
ANDERSON, Ind. Aug 14 2012- A 17-year-old accused of trying to break into a Shriners’ hall apparently committed suicide by strangling himself in the back of a police car.
Anderson police arrested Jace Zook and two others Wednesday. The three were handcuffed behind their backs and placed in separate cars.
Zook apparently strangled himself with a seat belt, according to a statement released by the city. Officers tried to resuscitate him. He was pronounced dead at a local hospital. State police are handling the investigation.
Captain David Younce, spokesman for the Indiana Police Academy, said there are no guidelines for leaving prisoners unattended. It generally isn’t good practice, he said, though officers sometimes must leave prisoners to tend to other priorities.
Younce said police may take precautions if they know a prisoner has a history of suicide attempts. Police usually learn that information after an arrest, he said.
Source:bluefiled Daily telegraph
Security officers fatally shoot man during gunbattle www.privateofficer.com
The shooting occurred before 11:30 p.m. Saturday in the Lioncrest Townhomes subdivision in the 5000 block of Euclid Lane, according to Richton Park police.
Security guards hired by Lioncrest confronted two people inside a moving vehicle after watching the passenger fire numerous shots into the air, police said in a news release.
After ordering the vehicle to stop, the passenger got out the vehicle and pointed a handgun at the officers, police said.
The security officers ordered the man to drop the weapon, but he refused and fired at the officers, who returned fire and fatally struck the man, police said.
The gunman, Sean D. Smith, of the 200 block of West Elmwood Drive in Chicago Heights, was pronounced dead at the scene at 4 a.m. this morning, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
An autopsy confirmed that Smith died from multiple gunshot wounds.
A second person was wounded at the scene, but the police statement didn’t mention exactly how the person was wounded. The unidentified person was treated at St. James Hospital in Olympia Fields, questioned by authorities and released, police said.
Richton Park police were working with the South Suburban Major Crimes Task Force to investigate the shooting, authorities said.
Cook County prosecutors were also contacted about the shooting, but the case remains under investigation.
tribune.com
Rural security firm stands guard over empty farms and cabins www.privateofficer.com
Buffalo, Minn. Aug 14 2012— As Guy Adams pulls up the driveway to his house on the wooded edge of Lake Pulaski, a small wireless camera peers from his bedroom window, registering his arrival. Additional cameras point at his boat and back deck.
“That’s so I can see who’s barbecuing,” quips Adams, general manager of Melrose-based Heartland Security, a firm that specializes in security systems for rural and small town properties, including farms and cabins.
Inside, wireless sensors keep track of who comes and goes, information fed to his smartphone. The phone also controls a motion detector, the security alarm, the lock on the front door and his home’s lights and thermostat. He can tap in anytime to view images from the security cameras, all of which face the outside of his house. “I have three daughters,” he said, “and I didn’t want to creep them out.”
Adams’ interactive system is a state-of-the-art answer to public safety problems experienced in many rural areas, and Heartland’s business is booming.
Given the often sparse populations in outstate Minnesota, there can be few people around to keep an eye on property and possessions. Farms have gotten larger as they’ve become more industrialized, leaving unattended acres littered with tempting equipment and metal parts. In lake country, cabins sit empty all winter. And small town main streets can empty out after sundown. On top of that, dollars for police and sheriff services have been reduced by a struggling economy and the attendant city and county budget cuts.
People in rural areas tend to describe themselves as self sufficient. Gun ownership is more prevalent than in cities and neighbors watch out for each other. As one member of MPR’s Public Insight Network from near Houston in southeastern Minnesota emailed recently, “If you can’t deal with whatever comes down the road or over the hill then you should go somewhere else.”
Yet, even the self sufficient can’t be home all the time. And that’s where Heartland Security comes in. The company fills the gap between self reliance and dependence on law enforcement, whose response times in rural areas can be long.
Most of the company’s nearly 7,000 customers in Iowa and Minnesota subscribe to services more basic than Adams’ sophisticated system. They sign up for alarm protection on machine shed doors, fan monitors in chicken barns, hot and cold sensors in farm houses and seasonal cabins that detect fires and blown furnace pilots, someone to respond to medical alert buttons.
Heartland was formed in 1999 by a group of about 10 electrical cooperatives, which delved into the security business for the same reasons they entered the power business back in the day. “Nobody cared about the farmer,” Adams said. The bigger security companies “were not that interested in serving rural areas. The co-op mentality is we care about the little guys who want the best technology, too.”
The company, with close to $2.8 million in revenue in 2011, now includes 14 cooperatives and nearly double the number of customers it had in 2008. About 2,000 subscribers take just the company’s medical alert service, and medical distress calls make up the bulk of call traffic. But the majority of customers pay for a combination of services, including fire and security, in part thanks to high metal prices that drive rural copper theft and prominent crimes like last year’s rash of hog thefts in western and southern Minnesota.
Overall, rural crime in Minnesota has been declining for years, but thefts remain a nagging issue. Rural larcenies rose 4 percent nationwide in 2011, according to FBI figures, at the same time urban rates were relatively flat. Rural statistics for Minnesota in 2011 aren’t yet available, but 2010 showed a slight uptick in thefts.
Sheriff Evan Verbrugge’s department patrols the entirety of Rock County in southwestern Minnesota, including the city of Luverne, which disbanded its police department in 1998. He reports a stream of metal thefts, especially on large farms. “I think copper has picked up in the last year or so,” he said. “Last winter, it was really prevalent. We noticed [thieves] were going out to the bin sites, where all they have are corn bins and dryers on an acreage. They go out and take that stuff. It’s in the electrical.”
“The mom and dad are moving into town,” Verbrugge said, “and getting rid of the acreages and the son or a conglomerate is buying the land and tearing down the house and there is nobody to keep an eye on things.” The fact that his deputies are stretched thin doesn’t help. “It’s easier to do burglaries in a rural area because of the staff,” he said. “We have one person on for the whole county at a certain period of time. Your visibility is going to be smaller. With technology the way it is, people can say, ‘Here comes a squad,’ and they just hide. And then they do their thing.”
Property thefts drive security system sales, according to Adams. “That’s why people want them. I’ve seen people ride in on snowmobiles” to rob a farm, he said. Or thieves will pull halfway down the driveway to case the property. “I think it happens a lot, enough that it raises concerns for farmers. They’ve lost gas and tools.”
Mark Smith’s farm near Lakefield, close to the Iowa border, has been in the family for almost a century. But Smith doesn’t live there, nor does he farm. He lives in Buffalo 170 miles away and works as a computer programmer for an insurance company, which leaves 160 acres of empty land, barns and outbuildings largely unobserved.
“I used to work on it in the summers when I was going through junior high and high school,” said Smith of the farm, where his father, who recently died, was born and raised. “I still go down there quite a bit. I plan on retiring down there if I can, if I can ever retire.”
Given that Smith is, as he jokingly puts it, an “absentee land owner,” it made sense to get a security system from Heartland in the late 1990s, not long after the company formed. “We have alarms on the doors and windows on the house,” said Smith, “and a motion detector in the house. We have the garage wired into it. We built a new pole barn five years ago that we also had wired into the system. That’s where we keep the heavy equipment.” There are no cameras on the property. But Smith does have a freeze alarm that once saved him thousands of dollars in plumbing costs by signaling that the furnace pilot light had gone out.
When an alarm, of whatever type, is triggered at a Heartland property, the signal is usually routed to a beefy, high-tech response center in Rockford, owned by another cooperative, Wright-Hennepin Cooperative Electric Association. Workers there will usually try to verify that the alarm is legitimate by calling the house or business and trying to reach the property owner. They might call a neighbor, too, depending on a customer’s wishes. Situations deemed serious enough are turned over to police or sheriff’s departments.
False alarms are minimal, said Stearns County Sheriff John Sanner, who thinks security systems are a good idea. “A lot of the locations we’re talking about are somewhat remote, at the end of the road. It’s not a bad idea to have an alarm system. I’ve talked to a number of people who steal and they say it is a deterrent. A dog is a deterrent too if it barks a lot. But you have to feed him and bring him to the vet, whereas the alarm is just there.”
Smith’s farm was broken into more than once before he had the alarm system installed. “The first time, in the early 1990s must have been kids,” he said. “I kept a lot of hunting equipment down there, camouflage stuff. No guns, but I did have my bow down there. They took that. They took all the decoys and they took ammunition. We had a big console TV, so I can see why they didn’t take that. At various times, we were missing a lot of things down there. Since we got the security system, that has stopped.”
“I used to worry more,” Smith said. “At one point, I’d pulled just about everything I had out of there.” But now he can store personal items, though he still says he won’t leave weapons behind. “I keep more stuff down there than I used to.”
Installing the alarm, he said, “gave us some comfort.”
Source:MPRNews
Shoplifter shoots at Burlington Coat Factory security over theft of soda www.privateofficer.com
Wichita KS Aug 14 2012 A man at the Burlington Coat Factory at Eastgate Mall pulled out a pistol Monday morning and fired a shot at a security guard who confronted him over whether he was going to pay for a soda pop he gulped down, police said.
After missing the security guard from 6 to 8 feet away, he pointed the gun at others, police Deputy Chief Tom Stolz said Monday afternoon. At least 20 or so employees and customers were present, he said, stressing that the information was preliminary.
Officers, treating it as an “active shooter” incident, arrived quickly and entered the east Wichita store, police said. The 27-year-old man was not showing a weapon when police entered the store and closed in on him, Stolz said. But the man was not following commands and resisted, and an officer used a stun gun to subdue him, Stolz said.
The man, who suffered minor injuries, was expected to be released from a hospital Monday and be booked into jail on multiple counts of aggravated assault, Stolz said.
Police asked that any witnesses who had not already talked to police call investigators at 316-268-4191.
The shooting was reported at 10:32 a.m. at the store at 8225 E. Kellogg, a Sedgwick County dispatch supervisor said.
The confrontation occurred in an open area near the front of the store, police Capt. Hassan Ramzah said.
No shots were fired by Wichita police during the incident, Ramzah said.
A store security guard told employees and customers that there was an armed person inside the store, and some fled or took shelter within the business, Ramzah said.
A police helicopter circled above the mall, but Ramzah said no other people were being sought.
For a while Monday morning, Brian Lolar stood in the parking lot, anxiously waiting to see his wife, Cathy, who is the store’s branch manager. Cathy is seven months pregnant with their first child.
“She called me on her cell and told me to get up here,” Lolar said. “She told me she was fine, but she was stuck in her office (while the gunman was still inside).”
Cathy eventually managed to get out of the store safely.
More than two dozen emergency vehicles, including patrol cars, responded to the shooting. Police Chief Norman Williams was among the officers on the scene.
After the Columbine shooting, Wichita police and other departments decided to teach all officers to contain an active shooter, police officials have said. After half a dozen officers arrive, they would head in immediately, armed with special vests and ballistics gear that used to be reserved for SWAT team members.
“When the officers roll to that site, they know it’s containment, entry, neutralize as soon as possible,” Stolz told The Eagle in a story published after the shootings at an Aurora, Colo., movie theater last month.
Source:www.kansas.com
Walmart employee runs shoplifter over with vehicle www.privateofficer.com
A Walmart employee has been arrested after allegedly following a perceived shoplifter out of the store and intentionally running him over with his car.
Police in Houston, Texas say Lance Jason Ferguson, 33, followed high school senior Dominique Mason out the store’s doors after spotting him carrying unpaid DVDs and video games.
Dominique admitted to having planned on stealing the items but said at the last minute, he left them inside.
‘I had some merchandise but I put them in the Walmart seat, just because it was wrong for stealing,’ Dominique told KPRC.
The boy said he left the store empty-handed but with Ferguson, unknown to him at the time, trailing behind
It was while walking through a nearby business’ parking lot he was hit.
‘Out of nowhere this red four-door car comes out of nowhere and hits me from behind,’ he said.
The boy rolled across the hood and tumbled to the ground according to detectives speaking with him.
Getting out of his car Domnique described Ferguson as approaching him as if he was going to hit him while instructing the boy to never return to the store.
According to police Ferguson admitted to confronting the boy inside the store but denied having followed him outside.
He added that he didn’t even drive to work that day.
Surveillance cameras inside the store, as well as in the parking lot, showed otherwise, however.
Police said Ferguson is seen leaving the store as well as the parking lot in a vehicle that fits Dominique’s description.
He returns to the store about 10 minutes later.
‘He had no right to do what he did to follow my child and try to run him down like he was some animal or something,’ Dominique’s mother told KPRC.
His mother brought him to a hospital following the incident where he was treated for injuries sustained to his back.
Ferguson is no longer employed at the Walmart, a company spokesperson told KPRC, and is currently being held at the Harris County Jail with bond set at $30,000.
Rookie Nashville police officer decommissioned after assaulting neighbor www.privateofficer.com
NASHVILLE, Tenn. Aug 14 2012- A rookie police officer has been decommissioned after his neighbor said he forced himself into her home while intoxicated.
Officer Robert Shouse was charged with aggravated trespassing and public intoxication.
Police said a 35-year-old woman who lives near Shouse on Oak Knoll Drive in Brentwood heard loud knocking on her back door just before noon Sunday.
When she answered, the man said he was a police officer and needed to come inside.
The neighbor claimed Shouse appeared dazed and there was a struggle over the door as she tried to shut it, even causing the handle to break.
She ran from her home screaming for help as she saw Shouse enter her home.
When the arresting officer arrived, he noticed Shouse smelled of alcohol and appeared bewildered.
Shouse was off-duty at the time of his arrest.
The 39-year old graduated from the police training academy less than two weeks ago, but has now been stripped of his badge and gun.
He had been working with a field training officer on the East Precinct’s overnight shift. The department’s Office of Professional Accountability launched an administrative investigation of Shouse.
He was released on $2,000 bond.
Source:newschannel5.com
Infant killed in Jackson drive-by shooting www.privateofficer.com
JACKSON, MS Aug 14 2012 - An infant died early Monday morning after being shot in the head Sunday night, according to Jackson Police. The 16-month-old and an elderly woman were shot in what witnesses described as a drive-by shooting in the 200 block of Lexington Avenue, in West Jackson.
Hinds County Coroner Sharon Grisham-Stewart identified the child as Kelona Sherrill.
The elderly woman was shot in the hand. Her condition is not life threatening.
JPD officer Colendula Green said police responded to 249 Lexington Avenue, near St. Charles St off Ellis Ave., at about 11:40 PM Sunday.
Police say both victims were outside of the home when gun shots rang out.
While this incident remains under investigation, Ofc. Green offered details concerning the nature of the shooting.
“Right now, it was just some type of confrontation which occurred, but this incident won’t be tolerated by the Jackson Police Department,” Green said. “So, we’re definitely investigating this fully.”
Police say they do not have any suspects at this time.
In what’s believed to be a separate incident, another woman was shot in south Jackson. It happened on Wooddell Drive, that’s near McDowell Road. This shooting happened at about midnight.
Investigators have yet to confirm any details about that incident, but according to scanner traffic a woman was laying in the roadway after being shot.
Source:wlbt.com
LODD- Firefighter dies in diving accident www.privateofficer.com
Gibsonburg OH Aug 14 2012 A Sugarcreek firefighter died Friday afternoon while participating in an advanced diving instruction class at the White Star Quarry in Gibsonburg.
Capt. Michael Burgan, 46, showed signs of distress more than 15 minutes into his second dive before losing consciousness around 2:15 p.m., according to The Times Reporter.
He was recovered from a depth of about 61 feet and was pronounced dead at the scene.
Burgan dived for both the fire department and the Holmes County dive team.
“We’re unsure at this time what happened, whether it was a malfunction with the equipment, or he had a medical emergency,” said Sugarcreek Fire Chief Jim Harrison told the newspaper.
Harrison said that the 20-year member of the department was extremely dedicated.
“He was one of those guys who you could call at 3 o’clock in the morning, and he would be there, no questions asked.”
Funeral arrangements are pending.
Long-time TV reporter and anchor Kathi Goertzen dies of illness www.privateofficer.com
Seattle WA Aug 14 2012 Long-time TV reporter and anchor Kathi Goertzen died Monday after a 14-year battle with benign brain tumors, KOMO TV reported. She was 54.
“Our co-worker, our angel, our precious friend, Kathi Goertzen, died today, surrounded by her loving family. The long fight against the tumors that have ravaged her brain is over. She is at peace now, comfortable and surrounded by all that is good,” KOMO said on a special web page in memory of Goertzen.
Goertzen was a familiar face to TV news viewers in Western Washington. The Seattle native was on the air more than 30 years.
She went to work for KOMO TV right after graduating from Washington State University in 1980. Within two years she was anchoring the weekend news, and two years after that she was anchoring weeknights.
Goertzen put her celebrity to work for good causes, but in 1998 she was diagnosed with a non-cancerous tumor that damaged the nerves controlling her speech and swallowing.
She had surgery and returned to work within a month, but the tumor re-grew in 2005. A series of surgeries left her unable to anchor.
In 2011, she was voted “Woman of the Year” in the 2011 Best of Western Washington and spoke with KING 5′s Meeghan Black.
“It’s been a rough road, as you know. I was diagnosed with this atypical meningioma more than 10 years ago and I’ve had several surgeries and radiation an tried lots of different drugs and I’ve lose cranial nerve that controls my face and my hearing and my voice and my balance,” she said.
When she couldn’t work on camera, Goertzen continued to work off-camera, behind the scenes at KOMO. She was philosophical about her disease.
“There’s only one way to take life now and that’s one day at a time, and it’s funny when you stop planning and planning and try to decided what you’re going to do next, how each day becomes more beautiful,” she said.
Goertzen was hospitalized last week and on Friday, her colleagues used Facebook and Twitter to ask for prayers. Thousands of people wrote to express their support.
Goertzen died Monday, surrounded by family.
KOMO Vice President of News, Holly Gauntt, said the support from everyone in the community meant the world to Goertzen.
“Please know that your love enveloped her. It strengthened and encouraged her. You helped Kathi fight a valiant fight, please know that it mattered deeply to her that you were there,” she said.
Gov. Chris Gregoire issued a statement via Twitter, saying “Kathi Goertzen was among the finest and most courageous people. She is in my heart and will not be forgotten by her countless friends.”
Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn issued a statement, saying “As the face of KOMO news for 20 years, Kathi Goertzen was a successful and accomplished journalist who approached her work with integrity, compassion, and a dedication to the public good. Her strength and resiliency during her illness made her an inspiration to many in our community. She will be long remembered in Seattle for her accomplishments at the anchor desk, as well as her grace in the face of adversity. Kathi was beloved by the people of Seattle, and we will miss her.”
Goertzen is survived by her husband, Rick Jewett, her two daughters, Alexa and Andrea, and her parents.
KOMO News invited people to leave messages or flowers at a memorial outside the doors of Fisher Plaza at 140 4th Ave. N. in Seattle.
Mother and son steal more than $2 million from Toys R Us www.privateofficer.com
MIAMI FLA Aug 14 2012 — A mother and son stole more than $2 million in expensive toys by stashing them inside the boxes of cheaper products that they bought at Toys R Us stores across the U.S., authorities say.
Broward County Sheriff’s deputies say Michael and Margaret Pollara then sold the big-ticket items online, according to an arrest affidavit. They were arrested Thursday and face a bevy of theft charges. Both remain in jail, and it’s not clear if either has an attorney.
Michael and Margaret Pollara visited 139 Toys R Us in 27 states, including California, Hawaii and New York, buying nearly $7,000 worth of small-ticket items to fuel their scam, according to the affidavit. Authorities were able to track Michael Pollara’s purchases across the country because he used a Toys R Us rewards card for all of his purchases.
Authorities said the Pollaras trolled stores looking for inexpensive toys that came in large boxes. They then emptied out the contents and filled the large box with more expensive toys, including $150 Lego sets and Leapster Pads, worth $99 apiece. The pair would hide the cheap contents somewhere around the store and pay for the inexpensive large box filled with more expensive goodies. Seventy-year-old Margaret Pollara often worked as a lookout, according to the arrest report.
Authorities tracked the two for months, watching them allegedly steal from various stores around the state and later ship packages filled with toys. Michael Pollara, 46, had more than $900,000 in eBay and PayPal accounts, according to the report.
Authorities began following the two in May after a Toys R Us employee in South Florida noticed that several large Lego boxes were missing even though she had seen them on the shelf earlier that morning. Store video showed Michael Pollara carrying the Lego box in the toy aisle, but the video did not show him actually removing the contents. He used a Toys R Us rewards card, which helped authorities track his purchases around the country.
Source:AP
Women dupe Atlanta police numerous times in fraud scheme www.privateofficer.com
ATLANTA GA Aug 14 2012 (AP) — Two women walked into police precincts around Atlanta, made presentations about insurance benefit packages to groups of officers and walked out with applications filled with personal information in a brazen fraud plot, police said Monday.
Cintia Ximena Pedone-Allou, 30, and Dawnetta Patrice Underwood, 23, both of Maryland, were arrested Friday after having visited multiple police precincts in Atlanta over the previous several days, police said. At least 39 officers and other employees filled out applications, and police believe the women may have also targeted transit police and fire stations.
“Obviously, it’s pretty bold to go into a police precinct and target police officers for this,” Sgt. Paul Cooper said Monday. “Anybody can be fooled, and this is a good example. If they can get us, they can get anybody.”
A man who said he was the women’s supervisor would call the precinct and ask for the watch commander’s name, Cooper said. The man would then call that watch commander and ask if his benefits representatives were there yet. When the women arrived, they would give the desk officer the watch commander’s name and say the commander was expecting them. They would say they were from “employee benefits” and were there to sign people up for enhanced Aflac benefit packages and supplemental insurance and were then allowed to address officers gathered for roll call at the beginning of a shift.
“It was pretty detailed,” Cooper said of the scheme, “detailed enough to convince our officers it was legitimate.”
They targeted evening and early morning shifts, which start at 3 p.m. and 11 p.m., respectively, and police believe that may have been a strategy to avoid hours when human resources staff would have been available if officers or other employees had questions.
The scheme was uncovered when one lieutenant became suspicious because he said the presentation didn’t feel like a normal visit from Aflac, which provides the department’s insurance. The lieutenant kicked the women out of his precinct and contacted the personnel department. Personnel staff called Aflac and found that Aflac had no record of a relationship with the women or Employee Benefits, the Maryland-based company they said they worked for.
The women had left business cards and police reached a man who claimed to be their supervisor, who gave police the women’s cell phone numbers. Police arrested both women and recovered 39 applications. When questioned, the women were evasive and gave inconsistent and conflicting answers, police said.
It’s not entirely clear what the women planned to do with the information they gathered, Cooper said. He said it could be commission fraud, or they could be trying to submit false claims once they established policies or it could just be simple identity theft, he said. In any case, they misrepresented themselves and were not authorized to solicit that information from department employees, he said.
Police have contacted the state of Maryland and are trying to determine the status of the company Employee Benefits, which the women said was an independent insurance company. Police are also working to get information on the man who claimed to be the women’s supervisor and to possibly file charges against him as well.
The women were being held in the Fulton County jail Monday on $55,000 bond each, according to jail records. Police did not know whether they had lawyers.
Source:www.sfgate.com
City of Shreveport’s employee charged with fraud www.privateofficer.com
Shreveport LA Aug 14 2012 Police have charged a city worker in connection with a criminal complaint received by the department.
Police were contacted by officials with the City of Shreveport’s Department of Water and Sewerage in July relative to information they received regarding allegations of an employee charging a customer for work done by the city.
Detectives immediately initiated a full criminal investigation into the matter.
Based on evidence gathered during the course of their inquiry, investigators believe 48-year-old Ronnie James Efferson, went out to a home in the 5300 block of Sussex Avenue to work on a water main as part of his normal duties and, upon completion of the work, led the homeowner to believe she owed $600 for the repairs.
Efferson allegedly returned to the victim’s home later and collected the money.
Authorities obtained an arrest warrant Wednesday Efferson with one count of felony theft. Efferson, of the 8200 block of Wildbriar Drive in Shreveport, was booked into the Caddo Parish Correctional Center this morning.
“Although unfortunate and not reflective of the high quality and character of city employees as a whole, the City of Shreveport will not tolerate any improprieties related to workers taking advantage of citizens – monetarily or otherwise – including operating criminally within or outside the scope of their regularly assigned job duties as alleged in this case,” said Assistant Chief Administrative Officer Brian Crawford .
Little Caesars Pizza -KMart employees charged with store thefts www.privateofficer.com
The Kmart employee, a Washington High School senior, allegedly stole jewelry, including nose and lip rings, from the store. The Bethlehem Township woman, employed at the Little Caesars store inside Kmart, is accused of providing discounts to friends and taking cash from her register totaling $425 during the last three months. A second Little Caesar’s employee, 25, is accused of stealing and giving unauthorized food discounts totaling $154 between July 30 and Aug. 7, according to jail records.
Two Little Caesars Pizza employees and a Kmart worker at 2600 Lincoln Way E are facing misdemeanor theft charges for allegedly stealing food and other items and giving unauthorized discounts to customers. The trio — a 17-year-old Massillon girl, a 24-year-old Bethlehem Township woman and a 25-year-old Canton woman — were ordered to appear in Municipal Court on first-degree misdemeanor theft charges.
The Kmart employee, a Washington High School senior, allegedly stole jewelry, including nose and lip rings, from the store. The Bethlehem Township woman, employed at the Little Caesars store inside Kmart, is accused of providing discounts to friends and taking cash from her register totaling $425 during the last three months. A second Little Caesar’s employee, 25, is accused of stealing and giving unauthorized food discounts totaling $154 between July 30 and Aug. 7, according to jail records.
Philadelphia pair charged in Macy’s thefts www.privateofficer.com
Bensalem PA Aug 14 2012 Police have arrested a man and woman from Northeast Philadelphia for theft from a local department store.
On Aug. 9 at 7:56 p.m., Bensalem police responded to Macy’s in the Neshaminy Mall.
Police said they arrested Erica J. Pryor, 25, and Dontre M Boozer Ballard, 22, both of the 10000 block of Veree Road, Philadelphia.
Pryor charged with retail theft, criminal conspiracy and false ID to law enforcement. Ballard was charged with retail theft, criminal conspiracy and had an outstanding warrant out of Philadelphia.
They were sent to Bucks County Prison in lieu of $350,000 bail each.
Source:Patch News
U.S. Forest Service firefighter killed by falling tree www.privateofficer.com
Rick Brazell, supervisor of the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest, said the firefighter, whose name is being withheld until notification of next of kin, was struck when one tree fell and crashed into another tree, causing it to fall in a domino effect.
Firehouse.com Editor’s Note: The fallen firefighter has been identified as Anne Veseth.
“The Forest Service is devastated by the loss of one of our own. We ask the public to join us in keeping the family in their thoughts and prayers,” he said.
The fire, burning in the Steep Creek drainage about 15 miles northeast of Headquarters near Aquarius Campground, was last reported at 43 acres and is being managed by the Clearwater -Potlatch Timber Protective Association. It started on land owned by Potlatch Corp., but was starting to move onto the Clearwater National Forest.
“There will be a formal investigation and that sort of thing to determine all of the facts,” Brazell said.
Elsewhere on the forest, firefighters made progress on several fires Sunday but continued to find new fires following last week’s lightning storms.
On the Red River District, firefighters extinguished or contained the Dawson, Ryan, Jack, Blanco, Butter, Sinker, Lost Hunter, Hay, Spook and Moose fires. They also continued to make progress on the Mallard Fire, which is burning on Salmon River breaks, and are mopping up the Matteson Fire.
Trail 96 along the Salmon River has been closed between the Whitewater Trailhead and Bat Point Trail 503. A portion of the Moose Butte Trail is also closed.
On the Moose Creek District, an area near the mouth of Meadow Creek that is being used by helicopters has been closed to the public. The Shissler Lookout has been wrapped to protect it from the Vista Fire and the person staffing the lookout has been relocated to the Gardner Lookout.
On the Powell District, two new fires were added to the Powell SBW East Complex, which has burned a total of about 975 acres. Much of the district remains closed to protect the public.
Source:Firehouse.com
SC State Ports Authority security officer charged with assault www.privateofficer.com
MOUNT PLEASANT, SC Aug 14 2012 - The State Ports Authority says a security guard was arrested and fired after he jumped into a truck and punched the driver at the Wando Terminal.
Authorities charged Jackie Williams with simple assault following the Thursday afternoon incident.
An SC State Port Authority police officer says he was inside the Wando Terminal gate house working on a report, when he heard a disturbance outside. When the officer went to check it out, he said he saw Williams and the victim yelling profanities at one another.
The officer said he told the men several times to stop arguing and attempted to get Williams to leave the area. A police report states that Williams said an expletive, opened the door to the victim’s truck, jumped inside and punched the victim in the head causing him to fall to the floor of the truck.
The police officer said the victim attempted to fight back by hitting Williams on the arm with a flashlight, but Williams continued to fight as the officer attempted to pull Williams off the victim.
During this time, authorities say the officer turned the truck off because both men were pressing onto the shifter causing the gears to grind. The officer then called for backup and attempted to separate the men again.
According to authorities, when the officer said he was going to use pepper spray, Williams still continued to strike the victim. When the officer said for the second time that he was going to use the spray again and put the can in front of Williams’ face, Williams stopped attacking the victim, police say.
Williams was then ordered to go inside of the gate house, not to move, and was later arrested.
The victim had a bloody finger and the side of his face was a little swollen. Emergency crews transported him to a local hospital where he was treated and released.
Officials say Williams has been fired from the SPA, was not a credentialed officer and did not carry a gun.
Source:WCSC
Murder-suicide reported at Wesley Chapel Target store www.privateofficer.com
WESLEY CHAPEL, Fla. Aug 14 2012
On first glance, the parking lot of a Super Target department store might not seem like the ideal place to commit a violent crime. There are people, security cameras, and plenty of light.
That is, unless you wanted attention.
And Pasco county sheriff’s investigators believe Armando Troconis knew what he was doing when he approached a gray honda civic in the parking lot of the Target in Wesley Chapel Thursday night. His girlfriend, 59-year old Elizabeth Behrens, was sitting inside.
“He got into her vehicle, shot her several times, and turned the gun on himself,” said Sheriff Chris Nocco.
His investigators suspect that Behrens was meeting Troconis, 65, to end an affair the couple were having. Instead, Troconis ended both of their lives, detectives said.
“We do know that the victim had told the suspect that she was breaking off that relationship and going back with her husband and her family,” Nocco said.
As gunshots rang out outside the department store, the calls came flooding in to 9-1-1. Pasco deputies arrived to find the bodies inside the car, with the engine still running.
Despite trying to close off the area surrounding the car, deputies said numerous customers likely saw the horrific scene, based on emergency calls they received. The sheriff said his deputies took extra care not to speed through the investigative process, despite the inconvenience to store customers.
“We have to make sure we do it right the first time,” Nocco said. “There are no second chances.”
Deputies said they are examining surveillance video to piece together what preceded the murder suicide. Investigators aren’t clear if the crime was spur of the moment, or planned in advance.
Target shoppers like Tom Lester said it’s unfortunate the suspect chose a public place where families often visit.
“It’s alarming, but with today’s society being what it is it’s not shocking,” Lester said. “It scares you to go out at night,” he said.
Source:www.abcactionnews.com
Hazle Township JC Penney employee charged with theft www.privateofficer.com
Hazle Township PA Aug 14 2012 Amara Ann Davenport, 30, Drums, was charged with retail theft after she allegedly stole cash from a Hazle Township store where she worked, state police at Hazleton said.
An affidavit of probable cause states Davenport was taking money from a cash register in the beauty salon at JCPenney in the Laurel Mall.
On July 18, the store loss prevention manager told troopers that for about the past two months a register showed a total of $204 missing. After reviewing store surveillance cameras, police said it was determined that Davenport was taking money from the register.
When store loss prevention personnel confronted Davenport about the thefts, she said she mistakenly took the money as tips, the affidavit says.
